Suntan's new album, Send You Home is a mix of the best in psychedelic guitar-pop and has just come out on Kimchee Records. Having recently made the move from Boston, MA to Brooklyn, the band is going about settling in and playing shows to support the album.

fakejazz: When and how did you meet/form (What's this about Nick having been in a band with members of Built to Spill and The Halo Benders)?

Scott: We met a few April's ago. None of us were very comfortable with our lives in Boston, having just moved there, and we would always bitch together about not being in bands. And it never really occurred to us to start a band together until Nick got a bunch of money from a court settlement (from falling off Lindsay's balcony) and bought a new guitar and amp. After that I was like, "Shit! I should get my guitar sent out here!" So I did, and then Nick and I just got together in between our work shifts and played one improvised piece for about an hour, and said, alright. We're starting a band... Nick: ...Lindsay came in the next time, and played the bontempi organ. Then a few months later, Dominic fell into orbit. Oh, I lived in Portland with Ralf who played in Built to Spill and Halo Benders. He had a band called The Feelings that I did some multi-instrumentalist, etc., shit with.

How did the relationship with Kimchee come about?

Scott: Nick worked at this place called the Garment District and at the time Mel from Victory at Sea and Ayal and Neil from 27 all worked there and they became good friends. Nick told Mel about our first show, which was two December's ago. Mel came and dug it and told Bob Dubrow (Kimchee head). So Victory at Sea and 27 started putting us on like 3 or 4 bills within the next couple of months, and Bob eventually signed us. I think a lot of other people were bugging him, (our friend Terrence, the Helms folks) you know, to "sign us."

How do you feel about being referred to in some reviews as shoegaze (my impression is that your music is more psychedelic than shoegaze...)?

Scott: It's funny because for a long time I didn't get it. I certainly feel like we have things in common with those bands, and I really love a lot of them, but I've never felt like that's what we're doing, you know? I don't really even know what we are. We've gotten plenty of tags so far, but it's hard to really say to yourself, "yes, we are a space-rock band or whatever." I mean, a review is a review and all that means is that you're working with the vocabulary of the person writing about you, and some peoples' vocabulary is limited... Nick: ...some are similar to what we feel like we're going after, some are interesting, and some people just shouldn't have gotten our record to begin with.

When writing, do the songs come together as a band, or are they brought to the band by someone pretty fleshed out?

Scott: In the very beginning, Nick and I would try to bring stuff in, but it always turned into a disaster. At least I feel that way. It wasn't until we just started to let things happen naturally that we really started to get a feel of who we were as a band. Now we just sit in the practice space and one of us will start noodling around and, you know, people just join in if they really feel it. I mean, you really just know after you've been playing on something for awhile if there's something in it that's worth remembering... Nick: ...and then a sort of structure comes together and words and all that. We try to be very conscious about not having too much structure, or a typical pop formulae, unless that's the way the song seems to want to go.

Does your music involve improvisation, or is everything pretty clearly mapped out?

Scott: It always starts as improvisation and then for the most part, becomes pretty mapped out. There's definitely always room for new things to happen, and usually the version of a song you hear us play for the first time will be different by the second time we play it.

What records have you been listening to lately?

Scott: This new issue of Easter Everywhere by The 13th Floor Elevators just came out, and it's got some really great live stuff on it and a previously unreleased Roky track from Bull of the Woods. I've been killing my CD player with that. Also the new Bardo Pond and Acid Mothers albums, and a lot of stuff by the Anticon guys: Dose-One, Sole and stuff like that.

What do you guys think about O-Town (the band, not the city)?

Scott: Nick's biggest influence. He sleeps with the disc under his pillow.

Touring plans?

Nick: Trying to get something together in December, but, it's a bitch without a proper booker. If anyone's interested in helping...

Do you think the move to NYC will affect your music?

Scott: Yah, definitely. Our energy is very positive right now. We're all just starting to get jobs, and we're really poor but we're so fucking happy here in NYC, we're all really excited about writing music here. It's a very inspiring place.